Advertising for Staff

Sonder MU*

“n. the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own.” – Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Sonder is a roleplaying intensive MUD that explores the intriguing lives and dark secrets of the denizens residing in Briarport, Washington. Sonder promotes an atmosphere of cloying, interpersonal horror and occult paranoia hidden under a veil of social normalcy. The families of Briarport have no shortage of skeletons in the closet. The recent triple-suicide of clergy at the Saint Thomas Aquinas Cathedral has shaken the normally sleepy port town to its core. The attention of regional law enforcement and media turns to the town as the initial verdict of suicide tips ever-closer to a declaration of murder.

-----------------

This has been my little learning project in the Evennia codebase for the past month or so as I get more Python under my belt and learn the ins and outs of Griatch's wonderful work (seriously, check Evennia out if you haven't already). I've been poking slowly at it and making little tiny nuggets of progress, but nothing really outstanding aside from building and making code outlines in dumbed down PyEnglish (Spanglish but for Python) for what I'd like to eventually do.

Getting to the point, what I'd like to do is get another coder more experienced than myself who would be passionate about this setting and want to chip away at it alongside me. I want to make this MUD to embody the feeling of shows such as Hemlock Grove and Bloodline. Something set in small town with a roster and application system that encourages numerous, small, interpersonal plots between the denizens who live there, all wrapped up in a layer of the occult and lightly basted in supernatural lore. Combat will take a back seat to the RP, and all coded systems will be in place to inform said RP. There will be overarching staff-ran plots to progress the storyline forward, providing change to keep the setting fresh.

From the get-go, it all sounds better suited for a MUSH. However, I'd like to cater to that audience that doesn't enjoy MUSHes, and instead prefers the coded systems of MUDs that allow mediation between players without staff intervention or rulebook knowledge. I'm thinking that any coding done would be released as open-source to the general Evennia community. I'd really like to give back, and contribute to that wonderful group of people.

A list of features I'd love to eventually put in for a small alpha playtest:

**An in-depth application and roster system where players can apply to take the role of pre-made family members or define their own PCs.

**An experience system that gives out roleplaying points (RPP) for roleplaying.

**A conversion of nWoD's D10 dice system into MUD code. Basically, the rulebook in an easily referenced coded format to automate checks of failure or success on common actions so that most player transactions can carry on without staff interaction, or knowledge of the player handbook. This would inform all systems with an easy to check black box

**An emote combat system that takes advantage of nWoDs combat checks with a few added tweaks to increase the claustrophobic panic that arises from CQC (struggling for a knife, good old fashioned wrasslin’, the sort of back and forth for any point of advantage against your opponent).

**An influence system that allows characters to duke it out in the social realm, trading nasty rumors for a leg up in the general view of the town, and keeping to social norms to receive a boost (think those rich snobs who dress so nice and tell you in the politest tones possible about their charity endeavors).

**A system of transportation; cars, bicycles, and public transportation.

**Various small supernatural traits. Mind reading, for example, for one or two of the roster characters. Very hush hush, and admittedly easy to implement! The way I'd love for supernatural traits to work is to be revealed over time through play.

---------------------

Quite an info dump there; anyways, yeah. So that's what I'll be chipping away at over the next year to various degrees, and I'd just like to test the waters and see if there's any other coder out there who's passionate about seeing this kind of experience out there and would like to join me in coding. (To recap, python using the Evennia foundation.)